It is one thing to condemn Jyllands-Posten for offending
millions of people. It is a very different thing to criticize the
Danish or other governments, since the criticism itself, even apart
from invidious calls for cartoonists to be punished by the state,
assumes that government should control the media. Saudi Arabia, Iran,
and their authoritarian brethren, as well as jihadist vigilantes, are
attempting to export and impose their media censorship and version of
sharia on the world at large, using economic pressure, international
organizations, or violence.

Finally, amid current calls for "toleration" and "respect for
belief," we need to be very clear about the distinction between
religious toleration and religious freedom.

Religious toleration means not insulting somebody else's religion,
and it is a good thing. But religious freedom means being free to
reject somebody else's religion and even to insult it. Government
should want and encourage its citizens to be tolerant of one another,
but its primary responsibility is to protect its citizens' rights and
freedoms. The fact that people are sometimes insulted is one cost of
freedom. The Jyllands-Posten affair calls us to uphold that principle
internationally as well as domestically.

Sometimes the cost of freedom is losing your job. But help is on the way [via Phylax]:

Muslims have little integrity demanding respect for our faith if we do not show it for others . . . None of this is to dismiss the need to take my religion seriously. Hell, Muslims even take seriously the need to be serious: Islam has a teaching against "excessive laughter." I am not joking. But does this mean that we should cry "blasphemy" over less-than-flattering depictions of the prophet Muhammad? God no. For one thing, the Quran itself points out that there will always be nonbelievers, and that it's for Allah, not Muslims, to deal with them. More than that, the Quran says there is "no compulsion in religion." Which suggests that nobody should be compelled to treat Islamic tenets as sacred.

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» The Great Cartoon Crisis Of 2006 Gets Hotter from Ed Driscoll.com
Glenn Reynolds writes that the Danish Embassy in Syria was torched. Given the cause of the fire, one of Mark Steyn's best observations still holds very much true:These days, whenever something goofy turns up on the news, chances are it... [Read More]

Tracked on February 04, 2006 at 06:02 PM

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As you point out in your most enlightening article "First They came for CNN," the tenets of Islam are a religion of tolerance that in many quarters is currently under the control of people like those who ruled Christianity at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. It is time for the West to come awake to the Islamic forces which plan our demise while offering highest praise and assistance to those like Irshad Manji of Muslim Refusenik.

My son's unit got their warning order today and will be going to Iraq in September. Now this is hitting me personally. I am very proud of him and his service but his wife broke into tears when we learned the news. They have one son who is two years old. (I posted a photo on my blog) So I have mixed feelings about this. I am proud for my son to serve and I support the war even more than ever. The madness of these people is hitting me personally today.